Jehona Hulaj – telegrafi.com

During Kosovo’s darkest years, when information was a matter of life and death, journalism was not merely a profession—it was a responsibility, a mission, and a daily risk.

 In an interview with Telegrafi, war journalist Vjosa Sadriu-Hamiti reflected on the 1990s, reporting from massacre sites across Kosovo, and the emotional burden carried by journalists covering conflict.

She explained that her journey into journalism began quite unexpectedly at the Kosovo Information Center (KIC), initially working as a German language translator.

However, she soon became directly involved in reporting on the events that were shaking the country. “Every piece of information we received at the Kosovo Information Center was verified at least twenty to thirty times because we wanted to be a serious and trustworthy partner for international cooperation,” she said.

One of the most difficult moments of her career remains her reporting from the Reçak massacre, an event that shocked international public opinion and altered the course of the war in Kosovo. She recalled that on January 15, 1999, she had set out to report from the condolence ceremony following the killing of Enver Maloku.

However, the situation changed suddenly when the first reports emerged about what had happened in Reçak. “Right at the entrance to the village, the first body we saw was that of a man whose head had been severely damaged from beatings. That was the first photograph I took,” she recounted. Sadriu-Hamiti explained that technology at the time was extremely limited, and journalists worked under extraordinarily difficult conditions.

 “At that time, cameras did not even record sound. If you wanted to capture footage, you had to test everything beforehand,” she said, recalling how photographs from Reçak were first distributed through the Kosovo Information Center before being picked up by international media outlets.

Yet the greatest challenge was not simply reporting the events—it was coping with the emotional impact of the scenes of war.

 “I was not able to write. I could only describe what I had seen, and others would turn it into a news story,” she said.

Looking back today, she acknowledges that the trauma left lasting scars, although at the time journalists did not have the “luxury” of thinking about the psychological consequences.

“We had no time to focus on ourselves. The next event would come immediately the following day, and we had to be ready,” Sadriu-Hamiti said.

She also recalled the period of the NATO bombing campaign, when foreign journalist Elias Bierdel was secretly sheltered in her family’s home in Prishtina while reporting from Kosovo for German public radio.

“We took that risk as a family because if the paramilitary forces had discovered that he was staying with us, the entire neighborhood could have suffered the consequences,” she said. In the absence of mobile phones and amid constant electricity outages, verifying information was exceptionally difficult.

 “There were times when we would wait for hours just to get a telephone signal and make a call,” Vjosa Sadriu-Hamiti recalled.

Despite the risks, Sadriu-Hamiti says that journalists of that era viewed reporting as a duty to their country. She emphasized that it was essential to verify information multiple times before publication because, as she put it, “we were Kosovo’s voice to the world.”

She also had a message for young journalists, particularly those reporting on sensitive issues or conflicts.

 “They should strive to be as objective as possible and avoid using hate speech. It is extremely important to report without fuelling division,” she said. In conclusion, the war journalist stressed that despite its many challenges, journalism remains one of the fundamental pillars of democracy.

The original article in Albanian: https://telegrafi.com/nga-recaku-te-bombardimet-e-nato-s-rrefimi-i-vjosa-sadriu-hamiti-per-gazetarine-e-luftes/

Full podcast in Albanian – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TuHdSLLTgs

This article/podcast is a product of the Academy on Reporting on Dealing with the Past (DwP) and Conflict-Sensitive Journalism, implemented by the Pro Peace Program in Kosovo and the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AGK). The views expressed in this article are the responsibility of the journalist and do not in any way reflect the views of Pro Peace and AGK.